why we do the things we do
by OverkillKiller7
Summary: It's Halloween, Jim's still in Stamford, and Pam is being a devil. A Pam/Dwight friendship one-shot.


**A/N:Okay, I'll admit that I'm crazy proud of this. I fully and readily say that. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Office. Otherwise this whole conversation would have happened. And Dwight and Pam would be together. How cool would that be?**

* * *

She's wearing a costume this year, even though she didn't really want to. After serious contemplation Pam chooses to wear the red sweater, a black skirt, some horns and an arrow-tipped tail.

She will be a devil for Halloween.

It's mostly so she can piss off Angela, and maybe have an excuse to call Jim and laugh about it. Which is so pathetic and she would never admit that to herself, but.

With a giggle she realizes that it's the same sweater she plans on wearing when Christmas arrives. This is beyond perfect.

She has a tiny pitchfork with red glitter sitting at reception, leaning against different stacks of files and her monitor, so it stands up and everybody can see it. Dwight smiles lightly when he notices.

"Very fierce, Pamela," he says, and Angela's glare pierces them, like a dulling knife that is always pressing into her back.

"Thanks, Dwight," she snickers and Phyllis looks up and smiles before walking over.

"Too bad Jim isn't here to see it," Phyllis giggles.

Pam smiles softly and sadly and was thinking the same thing. "I know. But Angela hates it."

Phyllis takes a Hot Tomale and walks away, grinning. Stanley looks up, annoyed.

******

It's six o'clock. Pam's buzzed. And Todd Packer has stopped by.

Of course he has, Pam thinks numbly before sipping more punch. She's sitting by Dwight, which is weird, and he has one cup of the spiked punch. She's been watching him though, and it's the first one he's had and it's still full.

"Why aren't you drinking?" Pam gives in a sort of mumble-question.

Dwight looks up and his eyes are intense.

"I need to give the appearance of drinking and being casual. I can't _actuall_y be drunk. What if disaster strikes?"

Pam giggles loudly and it's maybe the first time Dwight has said something outrageous and she didn't think about calling Jim.

"O-kay," she says and downs the red cup.

******

She wanders over behind reception, later, grabbing the pitchfork so she can wave it around and show people.

The punch was fruity and Michael kept pressing the cups onto her, so she's fairly certain that she's really drunk.

Things are really hazy and Angela's gone, and more than once she's found herself looking around for the blonde dressed as a cat.

Todd Packer is dressed like normal, something that Kevin already asked him about.

"Are you being a dude for Halloween?" Kevin asks and high-fives Oscar.

"Fuck you, man," Packer says before walking towards the table where the punch is sitting, getting warm.

Behind reception, the pitchfork tumbles from her hands and she bends over to grab it. Suddenly she feels a body pressed against her and moving and then Dwight yells and there's tackling and Todd Packer is yelling different profanities.

"What happened?" Pam asks wearily, the pitchfork now in her hands.

"Leave! Leave the premisis!" Dwight keeps yelling and Oscar leans over the desk.

"Todd Packer was, erm, miming different actions while you were bent over," he says and blushes.

"Oh. OH!" Pam finally gets it, then sets the pitchfork down, forgetting what she was doing with it in the first place. She wanders over to get more punch and when she gets back, everything has died down.

"It's okay... it's okay. Sometimes we just get carried away when, we are, err, intoxisaded, and we do dumb things." Michael puts his hand on her back and she shrugs it off.

The floor is surprisingly comfortable behind her desk, and peaceful once every has returned to what their doing. A thump lands next to her and she sees Dwight sitting on the carpet, really close.

Pam sits up and kisses him quickly, kind of sloppy and fast but it's still a kiss and he's still Dwight.

"What... why?" he wonders.

She giggles. "You saved me."

Dwight looks down, then rubs his eyes like he just woke up.

"Angela never kisses me in public," he mumbles.

Pam lets out a quick laugh that sounds like a bitter bark. Wait... A bitter laugh that sounds like a bark? She isn't sure.

"But she loves you," Pam says. "At least she loves you. I got kissed and now I'm not loved."

Dwight nods, staring off into space and she realizes that he's had a lot more punch that he admitted to. "Jim loved you," he says. "I bet he still loves you. You were so cute, last Halloween. You were a cat. I remember because Angela was a cat too."

He's still sitting up and Pam's laying back down, so she's looking up him with a dazed kind of look on her face.

"Wait..." Pam says, sniffing the air loudly. "Are you wearing a cologne?" The words come out different, though, sounding like, "aroo wearin' cone?"

Dwight understands, her, though. "Yeah. I bought it 'specially for her. So she'd kiss me in front of you guys."

Pam shakes her head a little, looking sadly at the ceiling. "Jim kissed me by his desk." Her arm flies into the air, attempting to wave in the direction of Jim's old desk. "And I said I couldn't so he left." Her arm flopped back down on to the carpet.

In the background, Michael yells and then they can hear Meredith yelling, _chug, chug, chug _and then they hear Phyllis go, "I didn't know I had it in me."

Dwight lets out a bunch of air really quickly. "I didn't think it was just a promotion that made Jim leave."

Pam nods and a few tears start to spill from her eyes, running down the sides of her head and leaking into her ears.

"Why am I a devil for Halloween?" she blurts. "That's the dumbest idea ever."

Dwight sighs and sets his hand on hers. "Why did I buy Drakkar Noir cologne? No animal will come near me now."

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